By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Shane Larkin was named Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 21 MVP, Euroleague Basketball announced on Saturday. Fourth MVP nod in a row and fifth overall in his 2019-20 run for the Miami alum. His latest accomplishments include 32 points for Anadolu Efes in the road victory opposite to Real Madrid. His 36 PIR was the highest among all players.
Per EuroLeague: “For a fourth consecutive round, the MVP award did not change hands as the unstoppable Shane Larkin wowed everyone again by powering league-leading Anadolu Efes Istanbul to a 75-80 road win at second-place Real Madrid on Friday. Larkin piled up 32 points by making 5 of 8 two-pointers 5 of 6 threes and 7 of 7 free throws. He added 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals and 8 fouls drawn for a performance index rating of 36, the best of all Turkish Airlines Euroleague players in Round 21. Larkin’s streak of four straight rounds as MVP is double that of any other previous player this century. Following him was the legendary Vassilis Spanoulis, who had 31 points and 7 assists for a PIR of 33 as Olympiacos Piraeus lost 91-87 at Zenit St Petersburg. It was the highest point total ever for Spanoulis in a non-overtime game. Shavon Shields of KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz came next with a career-high PIR of 29 to spark his team’s 83-79 home win against Khimki Moscow Region. Shields tied his personal bests with 22 points and 6 rebounds. Three players tied for fourth place in the round with PIRs of 27 each. Nick Calathes was the lone winner among them as his 10 points and 17 assists were key to Panathinaikos OPAP Athens downing LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 100-88 at home. His assists, while not a career high, tied the third-highest total in a game this century. In losing efforts, big men Kaleb Tarczewski of AX Armani Exchange Milan and Landry Nnoko of ALBA Berlin also put up PIRs of 27. Tarczewski had a career-high 19 points and 9 rebounds against host Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul while Nnoko dropped 15 points and grabbed 7 boards in losing away to Zalgiris Kaunas.
Individual highs: Georgios Papagiannis, Panathinaikos, 5 blocks
Larkin’s 32 points were the most in Round 21. He is also the season-long scoring leader with 21.7 points per game. Colton Iverson of Zenit St Petersburg and Walter Tavares of Real Madrid captured 12 rebounds each, the best total of the round, while Nikola Milutinov of Olympiacos tops those rankings with 8.4 per game for the season. With his 17 assists, Calathes more than doubled any other passer this week and pushed his league-leading average to 9.9. Lorenzo Brown of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade and Pierria Henry of Baskonia each had 4 steals in Round 21. Henry leads all stealers with 1.8 per game. Georgios Papagiannis of Panathinaikos had a career-high 5 blocks in the round, while Tavares heads the season standings with 2.0 per game. Calathes (10 points, 17 assists) and Johannes Voigtmann of CSKA Moscow (19 points, 10 rebounds) had the only double-doubles in Round 21.”